There is a difference between "modify" and "butcher". I'll bet that if he actually tries that project all he will wind up with is kindling and a pile of parts. I have never heard of such a crackpot idea, and hope it is an aberriton.

destroying a speed for lighter weight is an atrocity. a couple months back i bought a 'raped' top handle speed off ebay, and ive put many hours into it to clean it up and try to return it to some sort of working order... i dont currently have all the means to restore it esthetically, but functionally it is coming right along- i could take a very descent picture with it. not so when i bought it, thats for sure.

practically the whole time i have been working on this project camera i have been loathing the fool who modified the poor speed (very badly, i might add) to 'make it better' in some way. people should leave things well enough alone.

god, i hate all the plastic used today... everything used to be made of metal and was very high quality. i buy and refurbish antique items to use as household objects because the items today are such crap. everything has 'built-in obsolescence' and breaks. my western electric 302 metal/bakelite telephone weighs like 10 pounds and was manufactured in the '40s- it still works like a charm, and its built like a tank. can you see the plastic worthlessness manufactured today around 60 years from now? not a chance.

I can understand photo.net Kelly's point to an extent about collectors who stick cameras on a shelf to just sit there collecting dust for the ages, but no one suggested that this is what the naysayers were advocating....she was the one who brought that up. I definitely don't advocate butchering up a reasonably functional Speed and trying to alter it to the extent that guy wants to. There are enough junked Graphics that end up on eBay after people realize that these projects just weren't worth all the effort that they were putting into them.

There is a local Mom & Pop art-deco/one-hour photo shop in a strip mall near where I live here in Southeast Massachusetts. There is a shelf about 8 feet high (just out of arms reach) that goes around all 3 side walls of the store. The shelf all the way round the store is crammed up with vintage cameras, including about a dozen Graphics & Rollei TLR's each, and many other models from days gone by. These cameras don't get touched, they don't get moved, don't get cleaned or dusted, no maintenance or upkeep, there is just a total lack of attention given to them. I made the ultimate sin one day when I asked the woman who runs the shop (and owns the cameras) if any were for purchase. "No!!! Absolutely not!!!," she replied, "Those are MINE!!!" OK, said I as I turned and left her shop.

The next time I went in I started up with her again, asking about the cameras and not worrying if she remembered me from my previous visit a few weeks prior. No, they were not for purchase under any conditions, she said. Well, said I, "it is an out-right shame that those cameras are just left up there collecting dust year after year," etc...etc...etc.... I went on and on to her for quite some time, extolling the virtues and worth of the cameras and about having the same appreciation for their heritage and history that has been discussed several times here on this Help Board. She just looked at me with the same scowl and zoned-out, dead-pan stare on her face, seemingly oblivious to what I was saying except for an occasional & polite "OH!" and "You don't say." When I was done with my soap-box rant, she went back to her work taking high school senior portraits with her Nikon Coolpix. It was like banging my head against a wall. It was like I had suggested painting a mustache on the "Mona Lisa."

I still go in there because she has low prices on what little paper & chemistry that she still sells. And because I like to punish myself by eye-balling the Graphics, feeling a twinge of regret about their ignored state and wishing all the while that I could snatch them off their perch and take them home and give them the attention and use that they so rightly deserve.

Well, on the brite side, those cameras are not being chopped up and destroyed! And they will be sold some day ANd hopefully to someone who will restore them and use them as they were intended!

And after all this discussion (and I _really_ hate posting on photonet, and not just because of their server or software!), I'm getting the idea to purchase another side rangefinder Speed now! I could use a backup and I'd like the thought of saving one in response to that one that may see the end of it's life... I'll have to see now if I can find one....

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"Ya just can't have too many GVIIs"
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I thought it might be you, and then the kicker was when you posted over at photo.net last night. I figured it would just be time before I ran into someone who had purchased glass from me, we have sold over 100 pieces now and have had a big name company request a sample to see if they want to offer it in their camera line, thanks for the recommend..

We all ought to plan an outing to either glacier or yellowstone one of these days in the future so we could shot together and get to know one another, we could call the group the 'Graflex Goons'

On 2004-05-27 18:38, 45PSS wrote:
And don't forget that the "Mahogany" use to be a Beautiful Tree in a Beautiful Rain Forrest that is now extinct and that "Morrican Leather" was once an aminal that did not die of old age.

Your point is valid, but... You can (or could have) plant more mahogany trees! They do "farm" them now. The animal thing is something totally different and depends on viewpoints we should probably not bring up here